Recent Articles

“A recent decision by HHS illustrates the arbitrary nature by which some implementation decisions are being made at CMS while highlighting the problem of a top-down approach in Obamacare. After months of small businesses anxiety in Massachusetts surrounding the impact of fewer rating factors due to an ACA mandated one-size-fits all policy, the Federal government recently pulled a piecemeal delayed implementation of the regulations out of thin air.”

“The office implementing most of President Obama’s healthcare law is not furloughing its workers as a result of sequestration, its director said Wednesday. Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said Wednesday that his office has not cut its workers’ hours and pay as a result of the automatic budget cuts that went into effect in March.”

“Nevertheless, there is merit to continued evaluation of full-scale alternatives to the PPACA. One common defense of the law is that there has been no competing alternative, which is not true. But there is virtue to continuing to develop and refine as many alternatives as may be proposed. Toward that end, this short paper outlines one practical, conservative approach to replacing the law with a market-based reform plan.”

“Buried deep within President Obama’s $3.77 trillion budget is a tiny little proposal to increase Medicaid spending by $360 million. In a budget as large as this one, $360 million is scarcely worth mentioning. It amounts to less than one-hundredth of one percent of total outlays. But this 0.01 percent is worth mentioning, because it proves the president’s health-care law will not work.”

“Groups on both sides of the healthcare debate are lobbying Congress to scale back a tax in President Obama’s healthcare law that could end up costing the states billions of dollars. Supporters and opponents of the healthcare law are both eyeing changes to the law’s tax on insurance plans, which could cost the states nearly $15 billion.”

“In the coming years, treatment programs and medical colleges will face pressure to ramp up to create a larger system. But until then, addiction treatment may represent an extreme example of one of the Affordable Care Act’s challenges: actually delivering the care that people are supposed to receive.”

“It’s bad policy design to build and pass a law that relies on the assent of a determined political opposition in order to work. Republicans elected officials made it pretty clear from the beginning that they opposed the law and that they were going to continue to oppose the law; and arguably they had a small-d democratic responsibility to do so: Republican voters have always been quite wary of the health law. Democrats never really had a plan to deal with Republican opposition to ObamaCare, except to hope it went away. That was a pretty stupid plan.”

“Hospitals that treat the most vulnerable patients may have the toughest time weathering spending cuts under President Obama’s health-care law… Under the Affordable Care Act, the safety-net hospitals will gain a new source of revenue when millions of the uninsured gain coverage. At the same time, the law’s spending cuts could prove challenging for hospitals that tend to operate with relatively small profit margins.”

“A labor union representing roofers is reversing course and calling for repeal of the federal health law, citing concerns the law will raise its cost for insuring members. Organized labor was instrumental in getting the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, but more recently has voiced concerns that the law could lead members to lose their existing health plans. The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is believed to be the first union to initially support the law and later call for its repeal.”

“Obama and his lieutenants have their work cut out for them as they try to connect millions of uninsured people to subsidized private health insurance or Medicaid — and to transition people and small businesses who already buy their own health insurance into the new system. Public polling continues to show a plurality of Americans oppose the law, which is bad enough for Obama.”